Surrey Homes | SH79 | August 2021 | Adding value to your property supplement inside

camassia
Jo Arnell gets ahead of the bulb game with fuss-free
picks for every part of the garden
I
had an aunt who, as soon as the longest day was over, would start talking about
Christmas. “The nights are drawing in,” she would say before we’d even broken up
for the summer holidays. It feels a bit like that talking about bulbs right now, as if I’m
wishing the rest of the summer away and heading straight into the squirrelling months
of autumn. It seems weird to be preparing for next year already. But, just as the seed
catalogues thud through the letter box in January, when it’s far too cold and dark to sow
seed, so the bulb books arrive in July, when preparing for a spring spectacular is far from
our minds. I am not usually drawn into placing early orders for bulbs, but this year, for
varied reasons, there may be glitches in the supply, so it might pay to start thinking early.
We tend to lump all the spring bulbs together, so that – in our minds – and in the
garden centres, there is a happy throng of glorious colour that just needs to be planted
in the ground in the autumn for a guaranteed show the following year. Most of the
time this will work – in the first year at least. Bulbs are forgiving little packages of
squashed up stem, leaf and flower, primed by their breeders to not need much more
than a bit of a substrate and water to get them to grow and bloom. In fact many of
the forced bulbs, like prepared Hyacinths and Paperwhites, will happily do so in a slim
necked vase of water. It is magical to watch them grow roots and unfurl before our
eyes, shooting up to bloom and cheer us in the darkest, shortest days. This is fine for
a short term fix – they are treated like a cut flower that we grow ourselves – and then,
if we remember, planted outside somewhere to flower again. If we want our outdoor
show to be reliable and continue performing well, it helps to know that not all bulbs
are the same. They are often from different environments, even from opposite parts of
the world. If you are planting your bulbs directly into the ground, rather than in pots
and want them to thrive, then it’s worth thinking about the conditions they need.
All bulbs have evolved to cope with situations that are tricky for part of the
year. It is hard to hang on in there if there’s no rain, or if you are plunged into
shade for eight months of the year. These clever plants are able to make the
most of early spring rains or the brief time when the trees have no leaves, by
popping up and flowering in a rush. When the conditions change they are able
to retreat back under the ground, put themselves into storage and wait for their
moment to return. The thing to remember is which type of impossible growing
conditions they are trying to avoid – heat and drought, or extreme shade.
yellow
crocus
fritillaries
Extra images: istock.com/popovaphoto / vicuschka / photodanila
Woodland bulbs have timed their flowering to coincide with the cycles in deciduous
forests and woods. They will often be the earliest to flower, shooting into growth before
the dense canopy of leaves starts to grow over them and block out their light. They
will prefer to grow in humus rich soil, in semi-shade and won’t mind the dampness of
the winter. The woodlanders are also good at naturalising – spreading out in a carpet
between the trees. Snowdrops, bluebells, dog’s tooth violets, and wood anemones are
found in these situations. They do not like to dry out, which is why you often see
them for sale ‘in the green’, so that they can be planted straight after they flower.
Meadow dwellers, such as narcissi and crocus will happily naturalise in grassy areas.
These will grow almost anywhere, but Snake’s Head Fritillaries and the later flowering
Camassias appreciate a damp meadow, and won’t mind areas of cold wet clay. Bulbs from
more arid places will rot in such conditions, which partly explains why tulips – originally
from mountainous regions in Turkey and Iran where summers are hot and dry, find it
hard to keep going. Tulips need a sunny and very free draining position and will not
enjoy sitting through the winter with wet, soggy bottoms (I’m with them there).
109 priceless-magazines.com